one room challenge linking event week 4: let there be light! and lots of gold spray paint.

Welcome back to week four of the One Room Challenge Linking Event! Somehow I have managed to hang in there and I am still a--wait for it:

I will say, you all have made the process a lot easier with all of your kind comments and words of encouragement. I am so lucky to have such wonderful readers and fellow bloggers to share this series with! Thank you so much!

At this point in the process, participants' rooms are really starting to transform and visions are becoming visible! Be sure to check them all out over at Calling It Home, where the lovely Linda has been hosting us all month.

I, too, am starting to see all of the hard work pay-off! Let's take a quick look back:

In week one I discussed how I was going to transform an awkward sitting room off of our master bedroom into my office.

In week two I talked about the progress so far, which included some painting and a pilgrimage of the chintz.

And finally, last week I revealed my Kelly Wearstler Imperial Trellis wallpaper and my furniture so far!:

I was so flattered by the response to this photo, which I might add is a seriously "grammed" snapshot of about three square feet of the space, but in an effort to be better at accepting compliments, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! Aaand hopefully I can continue to crank out some more style... :-/

On that note:

Last week I left you with my plans to upholster a valance which I am using to disguise a somewhat dated arch window in my office. 

Here is the valance pre-upholstery:

Originally--as suggested in my design board--I wanted to mirror the Kelly Wearstler Imperial Trellis on my accent wall by using the leftover wallpaper to cover my valance, but there was not enough excess paper to do so, so off I went to find a fabric.

You may recall my history of picking out fabric--I am the definition of indecisive. My first fabric purchase this time around was the tartan pattern in the middle of the following photo, but I returned it after determining it was too subtle for the other patterns in the space:

I got some great advice following my prompt for help in last week's post. A couple of you suggested I use a solid fabric for the valance, but the catch was that my curtains are solid, and I was set on a pattern to balance the room a bit. And I am a bit of a stubborn ass.

Then I remembered seeing some Imperial Trellis fabrics at another local fabric store during the last fabric fiasco, so I returned to do some recon. After comparing swatches, I determined that the shades of green didn't match my wallpaper, or--more importantly--my curtains. Argh!

After entirely too much time spent dedicated to finding a fabric for the valance, I decided to go with the striped pattern on the bottom of the above photo, as I had been thinking about it since I had visited the first fabric store, and the colors complimented the existing ones perfectly. 

I also bought some batting, and the upholstering began!:

(side note: I am seriously considering doing our dining room for the next One Room Challenge Linking Event, HA!)

Then I took a tension rod for my curtains and mounted it inside the valance before mounting the valance itself:

Here is the arch window before the valance:

And here it is after (I need a new camera! Or photo shop!):

And then there was light:

I am seriously psyched about the lighting in my office space!

The following task floor lamp sells for $1,679.90 from Visual Comfort Lighting:

But I bought it for $75. BOOM! And at that price, I bought two! The other one is roaming around the house trying to find a good home, but this one will be proudly placed next to my desk. I love a good task lamp in an office, and given that this one sits on the floor, it will clear up that much more clutter from my desk!!!

And since my last post, my sputnik chandelier has been set up!

I purchased the following flush mount version of the fixture from Lucent Lightshop on Etsy:

So, it's not really a chandelier, but it's as close as I could get considering my lower ceilings...

 (They're not that low--he's on a ladder!)

I told him I knew how to screw in a lightbulb, but anyway... Ta-da!

 

And it even works--get out the sunglasses!:

Lucent Lightshop suggested using a dimmer switch, but as you may remember from my last post, my wonderful wallpaper lady had already wrapped my switch plate! So I will have a very bright office, which I am hoping might help with my productivity? ;)

I love my little Sputnik!

Perhaps the most pleasant surprise of the week (trust me--there have been some not-so-pleasant ones, too!) was the arrival of my Josephine Desk, which I had advance ordered from World Market, who reported it would take weeks to stock and ship...but luckily it didn't!:

(Aaand I have been singing the Super Cat song in my had ever since...)

Yet another pleasant surprise about two minutes later was when my friend and fellow Linking Event blogger Mari Robeson revealed that she had received her Josephine desk at the same. exact. time all the way across the country in California! Such a fun coincidence!:

Unlike the amazing Mari, I have not yet had time to assemble my desk, so a stock image will have to do for now:

However, I did somehow manage to find time to spray paint the legs of the desk gooold!:

Since the last post, the little brass bamboo accent table got a fresh coat of gold, too, and I officially became a member of the Gold Spray Paint Addicts Anonymous along with Mari Robeson and Jennifer over at The Chic Pad. Who else needs help? Remember, admitting you have a problem is the first step. I think.

The brass before:

During:

And after!:

The desk and table are not the only victims of my gold spray paint addiction this week--my driveway was a victim too, as were my clothes, and my hands, and.... The rest of stuff that is supposed to be gold will be revealed next week.

One piece that didn't need any spray paint was the shelf I bought (!) from a local vendors' market, because it is already gold! Here is the shelf in it's natural habitat (the poor sales associate who had to clear it off for me!):

And here it is in my office! 

I admit it is looking a little sparse, but don't be fooled; pretty soon you won't even be able to see its mirrored shelves and gold glory under all of the crap that will be covering it... 

And last, but certainly not least for this week's office update, is the arrival of my Dash & Albert area rug!:

Even though I got such a positive response to the combination of the chintz against the Imperial Trellis wallpaper, I have made the executive decision to move the chairs to the other side of the room in front of the window, which is where I thought they would ultimately be placed in week one. This decision came from more of a logistical place than a aesthetic place, although in regards to the latter I am a bit concerned that one side of the room will be really pattern heavy if the chairs and the wallpaper are placed side-by-side, while the other side of the room will be left looking flat. But who knows how the room will end up by week six--I certainly don't! ;-)

So here is an updated sneak peak of how it's currently coming together:

So as you can see, all of the big pieces are coming together or complete--whew! And next week will be all about accessories when I discuss the details! 

In the meantime, be sure to check out the 21 talented bloggers participating in One Room Challenge, and of course my 70+ fellow One Room Challenge Linking Event participants!